For the second time in as many starts, what should've been a comfortable lead with Dallas Keuchel on the mound disappeared in a hurry.
For the first time, the White Sox paid the price.
Keuchel entered the bottom of the sixth with a 4-1 lead and allowed the first two to reach. Matt Foster took over and not only failed to stop the bleeding. It's more accurate to say that hemophilia ran rampant. Six of the eight batters Foster faced reached, part of an 11-batter, seven-run inning that spoiled the Sox's chances for a sweep. They'll instead head back to Chicago for the home opener one game under .500.
The inning featured a couple of defensive gaffes, although none of them really contributed to the inning's meltdown stages. Adam Eaton was involved in both, first spiking a throw to second on a shallow fly that bounced past second base and through the backup system. That only pushed runners ahead from first and second to second and third, and given that Foster isn't a ground-ball pitcher, you don't go to him looking for a double play anyway.
As proof, Foster entered and gave up a sharp infield single off the glove of Jake Lamb at third to load the bases, and it didn't matter because Foster couldn't get a grounder. Taylor Trammell singled to score one, and after a Sam Haggerty strikeout, J. P. Crawford lined a single to right to make it 4-3. Mitch Haniger tied the game with a sac fly, and even then, Eaton and Luis Robert collided in right center.
The inning pivoted for the worst when Foster walked Ty France on 11 pitches after getting ahead 0-2, which reloaded the bases. Kyle Seager cleared them with a slicer inside the left-field line, and Jose Marmolejos ended Foster's misery with a single to center that scored Seager.
After 34 pitches and seven runs -- five on Foster's tab, two on Keuchel's -- Tony La Russa called for José Ruiz, who got a routine grounder for the long-awaited final third out.
That collapse didn't quite seal the game, because the White Sox had done a good job of creating traffic on the basepaths all afternoon, and they did it again in the top of the seventh by loading the bases on two walks sandwiching a single. Alas, Zack Collins popped out and Robert lined into a 6-4 double play, as José Abreu broke toward third for some reason and got aught off second. That ended the Sox's hopes.
The Sox's first bases-loaded situation went a lot better. They'd let Justin Dunn dig holes earlier in the game, but they couldn't keep him there. Clinging to a 1-0 lead in the fifth, the strategy finally proved unsustainable for Seattle. Dunn walked Billy Hamilton, and then Eaton two batters later. A double steal opened up first, and Jake Lamb filled it with a walk to load the bases.
Up came Abreu, but fresh off a second grand slam, he came well short of a third by popping into the infield fly rule. Yasmani Grandal picked him up by taking four pitches. Dunn's eighth walk of the game tied the game at 1, and prompted Scott Servais to go to the bullpen for Will Vest. Zack Collins foiled the move by shooting a single through the left side that scored two for a 3-1 White Sox lead.
The Sox then tacked on a run an inning later. Nick Madrigal shot a grounder just inside first base for a leadoff double, then scored two batters later on Danny Mendick's single.
Keuchel, who battled inefficiency early before settling into the middle innings, came out for the sixth on 86 pitches. But he walked Marmolejos to start the inning, and it all went downhill from there.
Bullet points:
*The White Sox walked 10 times, but they're only 5-5 in the last 10 games they've done so.
*Hamilton grabbed at his left hamstring after swiping third on the double steal. He stayed in the game long enough to score his run, but Andrew Vaughn replaced him in left field afterward.
*Aaron Bummer and Liam Hendriks pitched the seventh and eighth just to get work.
*Abreu also stole a base to give the White Sox three of them. They finished a net +2, because Robert was picked off second by the catcher on a designed play after a pulled back bunt.
*Grandal had an error on catcher interference.
